Practice Match
by redninjalass19
Summary: A miscommunication and a meddling cheerleader lead Sena to an encounter with the visiting basketball team, Seirin.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Eyeshield 21 or Kuroko no Basuke; they belong to** **Riichiro Inagaki** **and Tadatoshi Fujimaki respectively.**

 **I am making no profit from this story, it is only for entertainment.**

 **So Eyeshield 21 is my No. 1 manga series of all time and it's always been in my head about how Sena would come across to other sports manga characters. This has been lying about in my documents folder for about a year now so I thought I would post it.**

 **Hope you enjoy this one shot.**

* * *

The sound of squeaking sneakers and thumping balls ricocheted off the walls of the highly arched gym, the stench of sweat suffocating the space. Shouts and grunts were traded around the courts as the Seirin team trained, coordinating their attacks and practicing their shots.

Riko strode into the hall, a piece of paper wafting in her hands. She watched the team for a moment before pulling out her whistle and blowing, alerting the boys of her presence. Hyuga halted the practice game, the team turning to look at their young coach.

"We have another practice match," she said, stopping just on the outskirts of the court.

"Are they strong?" Kagami asked, wiping his forehead on his shirt.

Riko looked back down at the paper in her hand, reading over the stats one more time.

"Not really, they don't usually make it past the second round," she replied, looking back up at the team and spotting them exchanging dubious glances.

"But don't we need a challenge if we are going to win the Winter Cup?" Kagami asked, a frown on his stern features.

Hyuga hit the first year over the head and glared at the rest of his teammates.

"Don't be ungrateful. Riko got this match for us and we will play as we always do," he said, folding his arms.

"Just because they don't win doesn't mean they won't be a challenge. Not only will this give you more experience but you can apply what you have been practicing to a real game scenario," Riko said.

"The train leaves tomorrow at 09:30 and the match is at 12:00. Don't be late and don't get cocky," she continued, glaring as she spoke the last part.

There was a wave of nods before they turned back to their practice game, their movements sharper than before in anticipation of the upcoming match.

"What is the name of the school?" a quiet voice asked, causing Riko to flinch in surprise.

Riko looked beside her to see a mop of pale blue hair and she smiled at him.

"Deimon," she answered, watching Kuroko nod and join the others.

* * *

Sena passed through the halls of Deimon, heading towards the football field.

Since he had become a third year, he had had to stop club activites, which meant no more high school football. He still found excuses to drop by and help however he could but it still felt strange not to be on the field, fighting with his friends to victory.

Shin and the others and moved onto university, with some like Mizumachi and Riku being able to participate in a third year of high school football. Sena still practiced out of school with Monta, Taki and the rest in his year and they were able to get a few mock games, but he missed the thrill of competition, the danger of losing just once.

He would be heading off to Notre Dame in the fall to finish his third year, and he was still trying to wrap his head around it. He could never have imagined back when Hiruma had first forced him into a match that the lies he had told would come true.

The Devil Bats would be facing Zokugaku at 11:00 for a practice match before the summer started, after finishing third in the spring tournament. The new team was even more determined now and it would be great to watch them try for the Christmas Bowl this year.

"SE-NA!" a voice yelled from behind him.

He turned to see Suzana rolling towards him, already in her cheerleading uniform. Since she was from a different school and this was her own time, she could still actively participate with the Devil Bats. He blushed faintly as he noticed how much she had grown into her uniform over the past couple of years.

"Suzana?" he asked hesitantly, wondering what kind of trouble she had in store today.

It wasn't as if she did it on purpose, but somehow Sena was always dragged into something when she called his name like that.

She came to a halt in front of him and grabbed a sleeve of his blazer, proceeding to drag him towards the school entrance.

"The basketball team scheduled a practice match for after the football game, but since they wanted to go and see the game plus they knew that we might borrow a couple since it's Zokagaku, they arranged the time for the game to 14:30; but they told the team that is coming the wrong time," she said, the words spilling from her mouth in rapid succession.

"So the other team from Seirin is due to arrive at the train station in 10 minutes and no one is there to greet them or tell them about the change in times, so they are going to be clueless and Deimon will be seen as rude and they will have no idea where to go," she finished.

Sena jogged alongside her, managing to gain his footing after the impromptu yank off his feet earlier.

"So, where do I fit into this? And how did you get involved with the basketball team?"

Suzana continued to drag him along.

"When I was heading to the field just now I walked past the captain shouting about it. They need you to run to the station and meet them, since the station is like ages away and only you could make it in time, and as a result we both get free lunch for a week. Plus it's not like you have a game today so you have the energy to spare so go get us free lunch," Suzana replied, letting go as they reached the entrance.

Sena sighed. Though he was no gopher anymore, he still ended up using his speed to help others. However, it would be a good way to burn off the excess energy he had stored up.

"Fine, but we don't really need the free lunch," Sena said, bending to secure his shoes.

"Yes, we do," Suzana replied, a look reminiscent of Hiruma appearing in her eyes.

"Now go! I will save a spot on the sideline for when you get back," she continued, making shooing motions with her hands.

Sena turned and headed out the school gates, building up his pace in the direction of the train station. Hopefully they would be late.

* * *

The train pulled into the Deimon station exactly on time.

The group of boys stepped off the train and grouped together, making their way to the entrance. Once outside, Riko took attendance to make sure none had been left behind. Once they were all sorted she looked around, trying to spot a member of Deimon.

She had been told that she was either looking for someone in a red sports uniform or a turquoise blazer. She saw no sign of anyone when she noticed a cloud of dust that was making its way towards them. A sudden wind swept into their faces as she saw a dark shape come to a sudden halt.

Their vision cleared enough for the team to see a figure walking towards them.

He was small for a high school student, though he was not much smaller than Kuroko. His uniform was disheveled; his black tie resting over one of his shoulders and his turquoise blazer sat crooked. The black trousers and shoes were covered with a film of dust. He had brown hair that spiked everywhere, with the front part being a lighter shade. His breathing was almost perfectly even.

Riko's eyes roamed his body, much like she did to every athlete. Decent upper body strength but his legs were the prize. Their stats were beyond anything she had seen on any team and it was blatantly obvious the boy was built for speed. The boy must have been some kind of sprinter and an excellent one at that, but she couldn't tell anything for sure through the uniform.

Chocolate brown eyes scanned them, as if assessing them as opponents. They seemed to glow green for a moment before he stooped into a bow, suddenly appearing timid.

"I am really very sorry if you have been kept waiting long, you are Seirin? Due to play at Deimon today?" he asked, raising his head to look at them.

"Yes, we are Seirin and you must be from Deimon. I am Aida Riko and I am the coach for the team," Riko replied. Hyuga stepped forward to stand beside her.

"I'm Hyuga Junpei, the Captain of the team."

"I am Kobayakawa Sena, but please call me Sena. I will guide you to the school."

The boy turned the way he had come and began to walk, glancing back to make sure they were following. He fixed his uniform as he walked, briefly checking his phone.

"So are you on the team?" Riko asked, curious about him. The rest of the team was chatting in low tones behind them.

"No, at Deimon we have to quit our clubs at the start of our third year so to better concentrate on our studies. So I retired after the last Christmas Bowl," Sena replied.

"Christmas Bowl? But the basketball finals are called the Winter Cup?" spoke up Kagami from behind them, making no attempt to hide the fact he had been listening.

Sena had a look of confusion on his face before it clicked.

"Oh, sorry, but I have never been a part of the basketball team. It was the football team I had to quit," he explained.

"It's always football people talk to me about so it didn't occur to me that you'd mean basketball. Sorry for the confusion," Sena said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

Riko stared at him. He was talking to a basketball team; she thought it was obvious what they were meaning; but football, that rang a bell. Her father might have dealt with players of the sport when she was younger.

"That was actually why I was sent instead of one of the actual members. There was a mix up with the match times so your match will actually be taking place at 14:30," he said.

"Why was there a mix up? Why can't we play them game sooner?" Hyuga asked, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"The football team is playing a practice match themselves today and they sometimes borrow supporting players from the basketball team. I don't think they are actually playing but we need them just in case. In our last match against Zokugaku, there were more than a few players who had to go to the hospital," Sena explained.

Riko heard a few of the players wincing behind her. Kagami picked up this pace, coming to walk beside Sena. The difference in height between them was almost laughable, but the older boy did not seem nervous as she thought he might by the way he had acted at the station.

"I remember football from when I was in America. You played that sport?" Kagami demanded, ignoring the glare Riko sent him.

Sena looked up at Kagami, nodding his head absentmindedly.

"Yes, until this year. Though I still try to help out wherever I can."

Kagami snorted, causing Sena to look back at him. The redhead smirked down at the senior, doubt obvious in his features.

"A weakling like you? You are way too small to play in that kind of game."

"Kagami!" Riko hissed.

"You said the same of me about basketball, Kagami-kun," a voice added, causing the Seirin members to jump.

"Kuroko! Stop doing that!" Kagami shouted at the smaller boy.

Kuroko just stared at Kagami before switching his gaze to Sena, whom was smiling at the interaction. The blue haired boy's face remained as expressionless as ever but there was a curious light in his eyes. Riko, having managed to control her heartbeat from the shock, also turned to stare at Sena. The brunet glanced back at them, confused.

"You didn't jump when Kuroko appeared," Hyuga said slowly.

"He was always beside Kagami though," Sena frowned. "It wasn't really a surprise."

The entire team stopped talking to look at the third year.

"Kuroko has an extremely low presence, so most don't notice him. How did you?" Riko explained, still wondering how Sena had known Kuroko was there. They were his teammates and the ghostly boy was still surprising them.

"In my first year, we had a player on the team a bit like Kuroko-san. Nobody really noticed Ishimaru so he could be used in plays which relied on the other team ignoring him. So I guess I'm just used to it?" Sena offered, shrugging his shoulders.

They continued walking though this time in silence with some of the team muttering among themselves. Kagami and Kuroko dropped back as they sensed the danger radiating from Riko. Soon they came to a pair of school gates and Sena turned to them awkwardly.

"I'll take you to the basketball captain. He should be at the outside field since the game has started."

They continued to follow the senior, making their way around the school building to reach a large, green field. Red clashed with green, and there was a collective wince from Seirin as they saw one of the red guys get buried.

"Wakanari-san!" Sena called out, singling out a student from the crowd of spectators.

There were a lot of people there for just a practice match, Riko thought. She spotted several cameras and people taking notes, watching the match keenly. The black-haired boy jogged over, sweeping his hair out his face and stopping just short of Sena.

"Eyeshield-senpai, I am so sorry to inconvenience you, especially on a game day, and we swear we will uphold our promise of free lunches for you and Suzana-senpai," the boy said, his blue eyes glancing occasionally at Seirin.

"It's okay, and you really don't have to do the lunch thing," Sena replied, looking over the captain's shoulder.

He turned back to Seirin and gave them another bow.

"Thank you for your patience and I shall leave you with Wakanari-san," he said, before pivoting and jogging towards the red team's bench, heading towards one of the waving cheerleaders.

The Deimon basketball captain turned to Seiren, bowing his head.

"I am Wakanari Shouta and I am very sorry for the trouble we have caused you. We are so sorry about the timing mix-up."

"Please follow me, we have a space cleared for you to watch the game," Wakanari continued, leading them to a clear spot in the grass.

The team settled down as the match continued, the crowd shouting out numbers and names. Riko looked over at Sena, who was watching the match from the sideline.

"Why'd you call him Eyeshield?" Kagami blurted, looking at Deimon's captain.

The captain looked at him, his eyes widening at the size of the first year. He cleared his throat and pointed towards the field.

"It's his title, Eyeshield 21. It is a title granted to the fastest football player, a tradition taken from Notre Dame," he explained.

"So what if he is kind of fast? He's tiny; he would get smashed out there," Kagami said, ducking his head as Hyuga smacked him.

"Hard to crush someone when you can't even touch him. This game would have been over by now if he was playing," Wakanari continued.

Kagami crossed his arms scowling.

"I don't see what the big deal is with him," he frowned, watching as Sena was assaulted by something resembling a monkey.

Seirin settled down as the match continued, slightly curious about the rough sport. Koga flinched as one of the Deimon players were launched into the home bench with his opponent.

Although their attention was on the game, watching as the strangely shaped ball was thrown and run up and down the field, some shot glances Sena as the older student watched the game with a frown, occasionally speaking to the short old man drinking on the bench. The monkey boy beside him had settled down, also watching the ongoing match intently.

Riko turned to Wakanari, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"This seems a bit serious for a practice match," she commented, eying the cameras next to the field.

Wakanari followed her gaze and nodded, as if it were nothing unusual.

"There are always scouts from the other teams during the practice matches. Ever since Eyeshield-senpai and the rest of his year retired, there has not been as many, but they still like to keep a tab on Deimon and most want to see how they do without Eyeshield-senpai," he explained.

"They came to see Sena-san's year?" she asked.

"They mostly came to see Eyeshield-senpai, to try and gather information on him so they could work out strategies to beat him in the future, but Monta-senpai and the rest of them were also incredible in their own right," he said, his attention back on the field.

Riko nodded, processing his words. So the team was pretty good from what the other student had been saying and Sena used to be some kind of Ace.

"Was he really that good?" Hyuga piped up, looking at Wakanari.

Wakanari puffed out his chest slightly with pride.

"He's the best in Japan. Deimon won the overall football championship, called the Christmas Bowl, and Eyeshield-senpai was awarded MVP of Japan. In his first year. Not even Ojo or Seibu could stop him in the last fall tournament, although Shin almost had him."

Riko and Hyuga looked down at the field once more, their gaze focused on the seemingly plain boy at the sideline.

* * *

The football game finished with Deimon's victory.

Sena had congratulated the team as they made their way to the locker room, Monta doing the same. They had won but they still needed quite a bit of work, especially the first years. Hopefully the summer training would sort out the issues that had come up in the spring tournament and they could take the fall by storm.

Both he and Monta had stayed back several hours longer than they had to, going over the game with Doburoku and squeezing in some practice of their own. It was about 16:00 when they started heading for home, walking past the indoor gyms. Spotting the team from the morning packing up inside the gym, he waved as they came near.

"Who are they?" Monta asked, his face scrunching in suspicion.

"They're the team I collected from the train station this morning," Sena replied. "The basketball team."

"Suzana was saying something about that before the match started," Monta nodded.

A few of the players were having what looked like a mini-game, and the pair of seniors stopped at the door to watch. One of the balls rebounded off the edge of the hoop, shooting towards the Deimon students. The members of the mini-game shouted at the pair; those who were not used to the balls could get hurt.

Monta eyed the ball before jumping and catching, holding the ball between his large hands.

"Catch-MAX! Wow, this ball is way different than ours," he said, turning the ball over in his hands.

Kagami and Hyuga jogged over to the seniors.

"How did you catch that? It was going out the gym," Hyuga asked, taking the ball from Monta's offered hands.

"I can catch anything. After all, being one of the best receivers in Japan you have to learn to adapt," Monta puffed, his chest expanding in pride.

"You don't have to tell everyone you meet, Monta," Sena sighed.

"You," Kagami interrupted, pointing at Sena.

Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at him, Sena's wide.

"Kagami-san?"

"I want to face you. I heard you're a big deal and I want to test it," Kagami demanded.

Hyuga face palmed, while Sena looked that the tall first year in confusion, missing the glint that appeared in Monta's eyes.

"Sena'll happily accept."

Sena's head snapped round to glare at his friend.

"Though since we play different sports how about you just try to catch him?" he continued, smirking at his timid counterpart.

"So what, I just have to stop him?" Kagami asked.

"Yeah. Sena starts at one end of the gym and you have to stop him from reaching the opposite line. No balls involved and you can tackle him as much as you want," Monta proposed.

"Monta!" "Kagami!"

Monta looked at Sena, raising a large eyebrow.

"It'd be cool to see if the Ghost would work against other sports plus he's totally looking down on you," he offered.

Sena sighed heavily, wondering how he was still being dragged into things even two years later. He tapped Hyuga's shoulder, interrupting his rant at the redhead.

"It's alright, Hyuga-san. I'm sure once wouldn't hurt."

Seirin and Monta gathered at the side of the court, watching the two. Monta already looked smug, smirking as the redhead called out to the senior.

"Ready, _Eyeshield_?"

Sena just transferred his weight to the balls of his feet.

"Ready? GO!" Monta bellowed.

There was a blur of movement as Sena darted forward, straight towards the first year. Kagami spread his feet wide and opened his wide arms, waiting. Seirin watched with wide eyes as the senior passed Kagami as if he weren't there, as if he passed straight through him. Kagami was frozen in place for a few moments as Sena walked back towards Monta. The rest of Seirin stared at the third year in silence as they watched Monta offer Sena a high five.

"What was that?" Kagami asked, turning from his spot to look at the doorway.

"Devil Bat Ghost," Sena replied, saying his goodbyes to the rest of the team as he and Monta left the gym.

* * *

 **I hoped you liked it and I got the reactions and characters of everyone right. If you have any recommendations or tips I can use to improve in the future, please feel free to let me know.**

 **Arigatou gozaimasu**


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